Street Lights
by Srin
Summary: Mulder hears about mysterious flashing streetlamps, and naturally drags Scully along on the stakeout.


Disclaimer: Mulder, Scully, and the Lone Gunmen unfortunatly aren't mine. They belong to Chris Carter, 1013, and all those other people/organizations that are much richer than I am. I'm just borrowing them. I'll put them back in their proper boxes when I'm done, really I will.   
  
Author's Note : This story was inspired by the streetlamps outside my house. No, I'm not kidding. There's this row of three streetlamps, and two of them were out about 50% of the time. The one in the middle would either be on or off, and then when you walked by it would turn off or on, respectivly. Just across the street, there's a hospital, and I'm pretty sure you can see those lights from the windows in several of the rooms on that side...  
  
Scully sighed and took a final sip of her coffee, then tossed the empty styrofoam cup into the small waste basket that was already overflowing with the things. She peeled herself out of the uncomfortable plastic chair and kicked her partner lightly in the ankle.  
"Mulder? Mulder! Wake up!" He grunted, but complied.  
"What? Have the lights started?"  
"No. The two on the ends are still out, and the one in the middle is still lit. I'm going for more coffee." Mulder glanced at the heap of cups already in the trash.  
"You know, Scully, those things are terrible for the environment-"  
"And I'm sure they're somehow tied into an alien conspiracy to take over the planet. Just try to stay awake until I get back, ok?" He made a face and dug into his pocket, hunting for his packet of sunflower seeds. Scully shook her head and walked out, her heels clicking against the sterile tile of the hospital floor. He sat, chewing silently for a few moments, until the motion detector by the window started beeping. Mulder jumped up, spilling half his sunflower seeds on the floor, and raced to the casement.   
Sure enough, someone was walking by. A young woman had come out of one of the houses and appeared to be heading to her car. The moment she passed the center streetlamp, it went out. She did a double take, walking by the light again. It flickered to life again, then went out as she passed it a third time. The woman shook her head, got into her car, and drove away. That light stayed out, while one of the end lights came on as the woman's car passed it.   
"Mulder? Is something happening?" asked Scully as she came back in.  
"Yeah!" He recounted the events to his partner, and she gave an exasperated sigh.  
"Mulder, have you ever heard of faulty wiring? The way you were going on about the report, I was expecting a light show worthy of Close Encounters of the Third Kind!"   
"Give it time, Scully, give it time. Whoever's sending these messages probably doesn't want to do anything big and flashy in case someone notices."  
"I'm going home, Mulder." She turned and started to walk out of the room. Mulder waited a moment, then said,  
"It's an awefully long way to walk in the dark." Scully spun on her heel to see him dangling the keys to the car and groaned.   
"Mulder-"  
"One more hour. Just give me one more hour and then we can go, ok?"  
"Half an hour."  
"45 minutes." He gave her his most entreating puppy dog look, and Scully sighed.  
"Fine. 45 minutes. That's it." Mulder grinned broadly, and Scully settled in beside him at the window, a reserved expression on her face. Not five minutes later, the pattern of lights repeated with no catalyst.   
"See? I told you-" Mulder began, then stopped when the same pattern repeated again.  
"Maybe they want some sort of acknowledgment," Scully suggested. Mulder wasn't entirely sure if she was being serious, but nodded. He went over to the light switch, flicking it off and on a few times, then returned it to the window.   
"You know, if you're right and this is some sort of code, I hope you didn't just insult them," Scully remarked. Mulder grinned.  
"I hope so too." A moment later, the streetlamps began flickering again.   
"Are we recording this?" Scully asked. Mulder grabbed a piece of paper and a pencil and started jotting down x's and o's to signify lamps that were off and on. The lights danced for several seconds, then they all came on and stayed that way. Mulder looked at the pattern:  
0X0  
00X  
000  
XX0  
0XX  
X0X  
XX0  
0XX  
XXX  
"What do you make of it, Scully?" She shrugged.   
"Actually, it reminds me of one of those scantron sheets-"  
"But Scully, look, there's more than one bubble filled in on some of the lines!"  
"One that wasn't filled out right, then. I don't know, Mulder." The lamps began again, repeating the same pattern. Mulder flashed the room's lights a few times in reply. The streetlamps them went through the original sequence once, and ended with all three dark.   
"I think they're done. Can we go home now, Mulder?"   
  
After taking Scully home, Mulder headed for the Lone Gunmen's place. Frohike was rather disappointed that Scully wasn't there, but otherwise they got right down to buisness on the code. After about an hour, Mulder started to yawn.  
"Go home, Mulder. We'll let you know when we find something," Byers told him. The agent didn't argue, and was fast asleep on his couch the moment he reached it.   
  
"Um, Scully?" She glanced up from the paperwork she was filling out in their office the next day.  
"Yes?"  
"The gunmen say they've decifered the message. It's something to do with little grey men. They said to meet them by the lamps at seven tonight." Scully rolled her eyes.  
"You are *so* lucky I don't have a social life, Mulder."  
"It's a date then?" She gave him an odd little grin and went back to the paperwork.   
  
  
Author's Note 2: I've got the begining of the end of this thing... I'll finish it and post it if you folks want it. Beware the lights!   
  



End file.
